The Igualada contagion was disseminated at a lunch for eighty people.
The outbreak started in a five-member family, all of whom have the coronavirus, but did not know they were infected.

The Igualada coronavirus outbreak, that forced the city and the Òdena valley to be completely confined, started with a five-member family, all of whom have the Covid-19. The illness has infected 207 people, seven of whom are in a serious condition, while twenty-four people have died. As the secretary of Public Health, Joan Guix, has explained, the outbreak was spread on February 28th at a lunch attended by eighty people(1), where there were members of the family and a large number of Igualada Hospital health workers. ‘Then it spread along two routes. One inside the hospital and another outside it’, he added.

At a press conference, Dr. Guix explained that until March 9th it was not known that the family had the coronvirus infection. Besides, he has explained that the Department of Health does not know right now how these five persons got the Covid-19. ‘We do not know the origin of the patient zero infection’, he reasserted.

The Health Minister, Alba Vergés, has explained that the outbreak has not yet remitted, in spite of the confinement: ‘we will continue to see how the number of cases increases and how Igualada Hospital continues to suffer’, has said. She also announced that Bellvitge Hospital will give its support to Igualada, that has ninety-one health workers affected by the virus.

The deputy director of the Catalan Health Institute, Marta Chandre, has explained that measures have been taken sizes to reduce the stress on the hospital of the capital of the Anoia district. ‘We have reduced face-to-face attention and have cancelled all activity that is not urgent. We have to gain time so that the confined professionals can return to their activity and recover the normal operation of the hospital’, she said.

During the press conference offered telematically, the Secretary of Public Health, Dr. Joan Guix, explained that the origin of Igualada's cases is unknown. However, two outbreaks are known. The first, in a family nucleus of 5 people, was epidemiologically confirmed on March 9. The second one originated from a lunch, held on February 28, with the participation of many people, including Igualada Hospital healthcare professionals who [later] tested positive for coronavirus. The relation between these two outbreaks and the origin of the two is unknown.

The nurse who was the first confirmed case of Covid-19 in Igualada says that she did not go to the lunch party that caused the outbreak. She issued a communiqué denying this.

A few hours later, the first person affected by Covid-19, and her family, issued a statement that they had sent to the newspaper La Veu de l'Anoia denying that she participated in this meal or had no diagnosis then made about Covid- 19. The Voice of the Anoia newspaper, meanwhile, has stated that it is not true that the lunch was 80 people, but 53.

The famous hospital lunch: there weren't 80 guests, there were 53, it was held at the Ateneu, and several health workers had already been isolated

La Veu de l'Anoia has found that the claims made by the Minister of Health of the Generalitat, Alba Vergés, and the Secretary of Public Health, Dr. Joan Guix, about the alleged origin of the coronavirus outbreak in Igualada were not correct.

Direct sources involved in the organization of the aforementioned lunch have explained that exactly 53 people attended the lunch, not 80 as the Government of the Generalitat has said, and at the gathering, which took place inside the Ateneu Igualadí on Friday, February 28, at least one doctor, who had been pre-emptively confined, was unable to attend.

Minister Vergés' statement triggered a wave of outrage among doctors and nurses at the Hospital de Igualada.

The nurse who has been accused of being the origin of the outbreak in Igualada: "I did not go to that lunch, and the health clinic did not suspect I had Covid-19

"It has come to my notice that it that several news reports suggest that the origin of the coronavirus outbreak in Igualada is related to my person, so I feel obliged to request a rectification of the incorrect information released by the Ministry of Health of the Government of Catalonia to the media:

I am the first nurse at Igualada Hospital that was diagnosed on March 9, and that is related to the family cluster. I was infected from an unknown source, but neither myself nor anyone in my family have traveled to Italy, as has been disseminated in various media. This information is therefore incorrect and must be rectified.

Joan Guix, the Secretary of Public Health of the Generalitat of Catalonia, said that the outbreak of Igualada had originated at a lunch on February 28 at which several healthcare workers wereinfections were transmitted. It has been speculated that I attended that lunch, but this statement is false because I did not attend it.

As for my behaviour as a healthcare worker, as soon as I had symptoms of illness I went to my health clinic. There they did not suspect that I might have COVID-19, nor I was not tested in any way at that time, nor was I diagnosed with COVID-19. I was discharged and did not return to work until my doctor said I could do so

I believe that I have acted correctly at all times and I do not regard as correct the libel circulating about some reckless act on my part. I am also taking this opportunity to encourage the healthcare staff and to thank them for their work at this difficult time."